The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Committee hereby created and hereinafter referred to as the "committee" shall exercise the powers and duties and discharge the responsibilities enumerated herein.
The committee shall originally consist of eight (8) members, one (1) of whom shall be the Executive Director of the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, one (1) of whom shall be Director of the Emergency Management Agency, one (1) of whom shall be the State Health Officer, one (1) of whom shall be the Commissioner of Higher Education, one (1) of whom shall be the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, one (1) of whom shall be the Executive Director of the Department of Environmental Quality, one (1) of whom shall be the staff member responsible for the Nuclear Waste Program within the Department of Environmental Quality who shall serve as secretary in a nonvoting capacity, and one (1) of whom shall be the Executive Director of the Department of Economic Development. The chairman shall be elected from among the membership of the committee.
Committee members shall be permitted to designate substitute or alternate members to act in their stead, should they be unable to assume the responsibility of serving on the committee. The committee, by a majority vote of its membership, may recommend to the chairman that additional appointments should be made to the committee from other state agencies and the chairman shall make such appointments.
The members of the committee shall receive reimbursement for mileage and actual expenses incurred in the performance of their duties at the rate authorized by Section 25-3-41. Members of the committee who are state employees shall be reimbursed for those expenses incurred which are authorized by Section 25-3-41.
Provided that funding is available under Section 57-49-39, the members of the committee shall receive per diem compensation at the rate authorized by Section 25-3-69 for each day spent in the actual discharge of their duties when attending a meeting of the committee.